OFF THE ROAD AGAIN!

This was quite a trip, to say the least. I'll be posting about various pieces in the next couple days, but need to begin with the reason I was in St. Louis, of course.

We -- the 6 Bhutanese and I -- reached their visiting apartment complex in St. Louis on Friday at about 5:15. It was much later than anticipated, because accidents that occurred on I-70 made us hit town during rush hours. It was quite a challenge. I didn't meet or visit their family and friends; just dropped the Biswas off and headed for my church-connected mom and her kids who were going to put me up, or put up with me, until Sunday.

On Sunday, early afternoon, I headed over to get them and that's when much happened.

The first issue: I was driving through a part of town that showed the stop lights differently than I am accustomed to here. I was going to turn left in an intersection and when the light turned red, and no one was running the light from the other direction, I started to quickly turn. When I glanced, I saw a cross walk filled with college-aged students. I hit the brakes and stopped just a small few feet before I would have hit them. I still don't quite understand why it was like that, but for quite some time I drove and worshiped the Lord and thanked Him for protecting all of us. I could hardly breathe for some time.

After I reached the apartment area and was taken up to meet the family, I was treated like a special queen. One young lady told me that I was her Aunt, because she had heard that I am part of their family. She has 2 young boys and has been in the U.S. for 2 years. I was taken to another apartment to meet other family members and we visited for a few minutes. I started saying [hollering] over and over, "It's time to go." I had hoped to hit the road by 2:00; it was 2:40.

We had taken some photos together inside, but then took a number of them outside. And I made sure I had one that showed us as we were ready to climb in the van.

Then we headed home. Once outside of St. L., and a number of miles west on I-70, the traffic was easier to deal with. We stopped at a rest area -- where these two photos were taken -- and a gas station. Other than that, I drove until reaching home just shy of 10:00. Total for the weekend: 939 miles.

Today, I'm hanging out at the house, resting, "choring", just doing bits and pieces. Hopefully, I'll have my energy tomorrow. Today it's quite limited.

I know this is just a "plain ol', plain ol'" email-style post, but needed to keep you all informed on all sides.

When Lachi and her family told me a couple weeks ago to take them on this trip, I wasn't so sure about when and how it could be done, whether I'd have the energy to focus with a van-load, AND the fact that I hadn't driven the van very often and certainly not very far; it is Dave's. But the important part and the huge blessing? DID IT!!!